Famous

A Novel

De: Blake Crouch

Narrado por: Johnathan McClain

A man goes to terrifying extremes to adopt his celebrity doppelganger's life in this darkly comedic psychological suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Upgrade.

The basis for the upcoming A24 film Famous, starring Zac Efron.

“My name is Lancelot Blue Dunkquist, and the best thing about me is, when you doll me up right, I look just like the movie star James Jansen.”

Meet Lance. Thirty-eight years old. Works a meaningless job. Still lives above his parents’ garage. By all accounts, a world-class loser. Save for one glaring exception: He has a million-dollar face.

Lance has been mistaken eighty-seven times for the Oscar-winning movie star James Jansen, and for the last ten years, he’s saved his money and studied Jansen’s films, his moves, his idiosyncrasies—even the way he speaks. Now, after an unceremonious termination from his job, Lance has decided that the time has come to go after his dream of truly becoming Jansen.

From New York’s avant-garde, off-off Broadway scene to the glitter of Los Angeles, Lance embarks on a journey toward becoming James Jansen that will take him closer to the star than even he had dreamed—and to darker lengths than he could’ve possibly imagined.

Shot through with dark humor and building to a truly shocking conclusion, Famous is a scary, surprising, genre-blending thrill ride as only Blake Crouch can deliver.

©2025 Blake Crouch (P)2025 Random House Audio

Yes, its an old book- thats your fault

Yes- this book was sent for preorder. yes this book was 15 years old. however- this book wasnt on audible previously. why is it being done? because its becoming a movie starring zac effron. if you don’t research new audible books dropping thats on you. the story is interesting- funny yet weird. the writing makes me very much dislike the main character( for a reason). voice acting does a great job of reading in a manner that is pretty accurate to how i imagine this guy talks. Good, shorter book. This book IS OLD. dont let that make you emotionally judge the book.

Spoon Feed Please

Blake Crouch is one of my all-time favorite authors. Storylines always have something surprising and the depth of the writing and the character development never disappoints. This book hit the mark on those aspects. It was something that I definitely wanted to keep moving through to hear the next chapter. However, after the last sentence of the last chapter, I was left feeling like someone had torn out the pages of the rest of the book. Where was the rest of it? It didn’t feel finished. I’m sure that was the intention. For us to come up with our own understanding. I suppose I prefer when Blake Crouch spoon feeds us the whole story. Looking forward to my next Blake Crouch read.

A Short Story

This was a good short story that could have been a great novel. I love Blake though, and read everything he writes.

It’s good not great

Feels one note throughout and that does switch but it’s a long way to the pay off.

Great idea for the premise of the book. Unsatisfactory conclusion

Whatever happened to Amy? I feel that this was a great idea and a great book. But that the offer simply ran out of time… Likely with his publisher… To write a satisfactory conclusion. Jim Lockwood

The balance of shock, emotion and comedy

A good weekend read, something intriguing and laughable at times. I feel there were many wonderful ways there could’ve been more added to this story, as if we got the lite version. I want to know more about Lance!

Great narration.

I just kept waiting on the exciting thing to happen and when it did happen, the end of the book was near. Love Blake Crouch books but this one is not that great. Great idea though, it just could have been more exciting.

Disappointed

Very disappointed. I love Blake Crouch usually. This could have been a twilight zone short story.